The power of Hurricane Sandy is taking a toll on utility lines across Central Massachusetts. At 9:18 tonight, it was reported that over 52,000 had lost power in the region. But the numbers are rising rapidly nearby and around the state. At 9 p.m., The Associated Press reported 385,000 without power in Massachusetts.

By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The power of Hurricane Sandy is taking a toll on utility lines across Massachusetts. The numbers of homes without power is rising steadily. At 9:18 tonight, it was reported that over 52,000 had lost power in the region. However, the numbers are rising rapidly nearby and around the state.

And Gov. Deval L. Patrick said there has been a lot of wind damage but no serious injury reported because of the storm.

At 9 tonight, The Associated Press reported 385,000 without power in Massachusetts.

Speaking at 8:30 p.m. from Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency bunker in Framingham, the governor said most of the impact in Massachusetts was on the state's south coast.

He said that area was entering a dangerous stage of high tides and storm surge.

The governor said that the state was lucky that the hurricane took a turn and did not hit Massachusetts as directly as had been predicted in one scenario.

By 8:30 tonight, the governor said, 108 people were in shelters. There is capacity for 10,000 to 15,000 people he said.

“In general we think people can prepare for a normal workday” on Tuesday, Gov. Patrick said.

He said he is cautiously optimistic that commuter rail and MBTA service will be ready by commuting time Tuesday.

The opening of state government offices will be delayed until 10 a.m. Tuesday, he said, and said he hopes private businesses will be a flexible as well — especially if their employees are coming from the southern shore or Cape Ann.

The governor said that the utilities' “plans have a level of rigor that's been higher than in the past.”

The governor has warned the utilities that they could face penalties if their response is not better than during previous storms and said the utilities had representatives at the MEMA bunker.

Although Worcester seems to have fared relatively well in the storm, about 6,000 National Grid customers in the city were without power shortly before 10 tonight. Crews will be able to do only limited restoration overnight because of high winds and limited visibility, according to a city spokesman. Restoration will likely begin tomorrow.

The city's Emergency Operation Center will be staffed tonight, and the Department of Public Works' Customer Service Center ((508) 929-1300 will stay open through the business day tomorrow.

As of 9:45 p.m., all of the city's streets were open and passable, although a few major intersections were without traffic lights.

The American Red Cross and city shelter at Worcester Technical High School will remain open, and six people were being served tonight.

Residents should call the DPW Customer Service Center to report downed trees, branches, blocked roadways, sewage backup or related storm issues. National Grid ((800) 465-1212 should also be notified of all downed wires.

More than 50 trees and major branches had fallen and been dealt with by 9:45 p.m. Residents can bring their brush, branches and tree limbs that have a diameter of 8 inches or less to the tree belt and stack it to allow pedestrians to walk on sidewalks. Tree debris put at the curbside will be collected as part of the annual fall leaf pickup, which begins Nov. 5. Residents can also bring tree debris to the Millbury Street Yard Waste site on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Tree limbs brought there must be less than 8 inches in diameter and 8 feet in length. Larger branches must be disposed of through an Asian longhorned beetle certified tree contractor.

Although the city's schools will be closed tomorrow, City Hall and city departments will be open regular hours, as well as the school administration building

The entire town of Holden was without power for a while, but the power had come back on by 10 p.m.

Earlier today, after National Grid Massachusetts President Marcy Reed announced at 3 p.m. that 42,000 customers lost power statewide, the utility's website showed that nearly double that number — 82,000 — were without electricity statewide.

At 9: 18 p.m. , 47,465 National Grid customers were reported without power in Worcester County. That is 16.3 percent of its customers in the county.

On top of that 4,715 Unitil customers in north Central Massachusetts had no electricity at 9 tonight. That represents 16.2 percent of their customers.

But all these numbers are certain to rise, as the storm continues to beat down.

New figures will be reported from National Grid and Unitil as they are received.

National Grid had 550 crews — between 1,400 and 1,500 people — on the ground in Massachusetts waiting to tackle the power outages, Ms. Reed said during a 3 p.m. teleconference call with reporters.

She said that a second wave of crews will arrive in the area after the storm.

Workers have been called in from near and far — Georgia, California, Canada and elsewhere — through mutual aid pacts National Grid has with other companies, Ms. Reed said.

National Grid also is preparing for interruption of natural gas service to customers. Ms. Reed said the storm surge can interrupt gas mains, although she said that is not expected.

She said the company is determined to improve its performance after hearing complaints to its response to Hurricane Irene in August 2011 and an October snowstorm last year. Each of those events left more than 500,000 of its customers without power.

Ms. Reed said she had “no idea” how many customer will lose power in this storm, because she did not know the track of the storm or how devastating it will be.

But she said, “I would not be surprised if 100,000 or two or three times that” lose their electricity.

She said that the enormous Hurricane Sandy will affect 60 million United States residents and that for National Grid “this is a Category 5 storm,” the most severe category.

It took National Grid seven to nine days to restore all customers after the hurricane and freak snowstorm in October 2011, she said. Fifty percent of the outages were restored by Day 3, but more difficult places took longer, she said.

The company is working to improve its performance with this hurricane by undertaking preparations starting with the beginning of last week, Ms. Reed said. “If we have the same number” of outages this week — 500,000 — it will take “multiple days” to restore the power, she said.

But she said she hopes this year's preparations “might shave a day or two off” the seven to nine days that some people went without power last year. But, unlike Hurricane Irene, which blew through in a few hours “Sandy will hang around for almost 24 hours” Ms. Reed said.

Like other utility companies, National Grid will not put a worker in a bucket when winds are over 30 miles per hour because of safety considerations, she said.

Crews will not do damage assessment until daybreak tomorrow, Ms. Reed said.

Most of the town of Holden was without power tonight because of a National Grid line that feeds the town, which has its own municipal power service. Power was not expected to be restored until possible tomorrow.

The town of Warren was among the darkest places in the commonwealth tonight after several trees on upper Bemis Road went down in the storm.

The trees took down four poles carrying a main electric feed to the town about 4:30 p.m., according to police Sgt. Joseph LaFlower.

There went electrical service to 2,280 of the 2,345 electrical customers in town, according to National Grid.National Grid crews were in town working on it, said Sgt. LaFlower, who still had lights at the police station thanks to a generator there. The town was hoping to get an estimate tonight on how long until power would be restored.

With mild temperatures, there were no plans to open a shelter, which would be considered if the power remained out for days, the sergeant said.

In Upton, two trees came crashing down on two houses, one of Wildwood Avenue and the other on Plain Street.

According to the Upton Fire Department, there were no injuries. The Plain Street residence sustained severe roof damage, while the Wildwood Avenue home had minor damage. As of late tonight, a long, dark stretch of Route 140 from Browns Road in Grafton to Williams Street in Upton was closed because of down power lines and trees.

National Grid's Ms. Reed emphasized a warning to customers “to be safe” and to be prepared for extended power outages.

She also said that use of personal generators is a good thing to blunt the impact of a power failure, but presents “huge problems.” They should be placed outdoors in well-ventilated spaces, she said.

Also, anyone using a personal generator during a power outage should be certain to shut off the main power switch to their home. She said it “is important to the safety of our crews” expecting to find lines with no electricity in them, Ms. Reed said.

She said the company heard “loud and clear” that people were dissatisfied that the company last year did not provide timely and accurate information on the extent of outages and when power would be restored.

National Grid is concentrating on community liaison this time, she said.

The company plans to use Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media in addition to traditional press releases and press conferences to communicate with customers, she said.

Craig Semon of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.Return to telegram.com for updated outage information.

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